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WWE’s ‘Quantity Over Quality’ Approach is Harmful to Their Own Product

By Alexander Podgorski

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This goes far beyond simply being ‘too much of a good thing’ in the WWE.

The upcoming WWE SummerSlam PPV is scheduled to be between five and six hours in length. This is a major increase from last year’s event, which was four hours long.

Unfortunately, this isn’t anything new for WWE; they’ve been increasing not just the average number of ‘special’ events per year but also the lengths of their biggest shows for the better part of two years now. And this is going to be problematic for WWE in the long run.

The first question to ask is, why is WWE doing this? Well, the reason for these increases is that most viewers now watch WWE’s programs on their WWE Network, with fewer people tuning in on traditional PPV. Because they control the content on the Network, they can basically do whatever they want, without fear of a PPV provider ending a broadcast early or not allowing it due to content.

Because of this freedom, WWE’s decision-makers are embarking on a quantity-over-quality approach when it comes to their bigger shows. Because of their current status of dominion in the wrestling industry in the United States, WWE’s power-brokers feel comfortable in setting shows that go an incredibly long time without worrying about any consequences.

But there actually are risks of running such a long event. A gradual decrease in live audience noise and interest, fan exhaustion, and apathy towards the televised events are but a few of the risks that exist with such a long event.

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Let’s look at the past two WrestleManias for reference. Both WrestleManias 32 and 33 were between seven and eight hours long from pre-show to closing moments. This is an exhaustive amount of time to be spent sitting in one spot watching something like wrestling, especially if the matches and storylines aren’t engaging enough to keep people excited.

In the case of both WrestleManias, the length of the shows caused the fans to be exhausted and disgruntled by the time both main events went down. This is why, if you re-watch either show, you’ll hear less cheering and more apathy towards the end of either one.

While WWE might not think that crowd noise is important anymore, it actually still is. The live audience’s noise is a major indicator of interest and excitement in the action taking place in the ring. If the crowd is quiet, that means the action is poor, or they’re tired and bored. Just like at any sporting event, you do not want a bored crowd. That reputation discourages people from tuning in again and also discourages new fans from watching regularly.

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It has reached a point now in WWE where the PPVs are becoming so heavy and stacked that the weekly programs matter less and less. The more they add these ‘supercards’ that go over four hours, the less inclined people will be to rune in for regular programming. The goal in WWE appears to be to get as many people to watch the bigger events more than the weekly tv shows.

The people that do tune in to these large shows won’t have enough energy to watch so much wrestling programming in such a short period of time, and thus will suffer burnout from overexposure to one company.

This year’s SummerSlam is also going to have an NXT TakeOver special the night before. That itself is scheduled to be another three-hour event that will likely exhaust some fans as well. It will also act as ‘competition’ for SummerSlam, and has the potential of out-doing the main roster performers, just like it has in previous years.

If this happens, it will only harm SummerSlam even more. Wrestling fans that watch NXT TakeOver will get spoiled from that show’s superior action, and will thus react negatively to matches on the SummerSlam card that fail to reach the standard set by NXT.

Finally, this ‘quantity over quality’ approach stems from the idea of sticking as many matches on one card as possible. The idea here is that, if it’s on that special card, it must be important. But throwing a match onto a card just for the sake of doing so doesn’t make a match special.

A match should appear on one of the Big 4 PPVs if it’s a big match, not just to fill in time. Adding so many matches to these shows makes the weekly programs less important, as the weekly feuds matter less when the blow-off matches happen on the PPVs anyway.

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Simply put, increasing the length of WWE’s PPVs hurts everyone. It makes for a less comfortable and enjoyable viewing experience for the average WWE fan. It damages the weekly shows by making them feel insignificant, as these bigger cards have more matches thrown onto them haphazardly. Finally, it creates a burnout due to so much wrestling being shown in such a short period of time.

The best way to keep people interested in something is to give it to them in small doses, not to give them more than they ever wanted. The former keeps them interested long-term by having them want more all the time. The latter exposes to them to so much at once that it eventually leads to familiarity and then contempt. This is the risk SummerSlam faces this year.

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